Some things just go together —

For example: Red beans and rice are a natural combination. So is peanut butter and jelly, cookies and milk (see previous), hot dogs and mustard, bangers and mash.

And some things just don’t go together —

Babies and construction work.

So, here’s the thing, if anyone was wondering why Baby Augie hasn’t been updated in a while (Lauren), it’s because we’ve suffered the most almighty construction project. Located where? Right above the nursery.

Here’s what happens: At 7.56 a.m., we hear the first clomp, clomp, clomp of workers’ boots entering the apartment. There is about half an hour of touring as the workers examine everything that happened the day before. Then they start pounding the walls with what — pick-axes? crowbars? heaven only knows what — and rocks, rubble and dust come flying down the walls entering our apartment under the floorboards. That continues until 12 p.m. when the workers take a break for lunch. Then, at 12. 30 the workers return and the drilling begins. A bit of drilling here and a bit of drilling there. Then there’s quiet for a while and then, just when you least expect it, the drilling will fire up or an entire bathtub will dropped or a cement-mixer or whatever it is they’ve got up there. And that continues until 5 p.m. when we hear the clomp, clomp, clomp of the workers’ boots leaving the apartment.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the Donner apartment, August wakes up and just when he’s about ready for a nice quiet feed on the couch, the pounding begins over the living room. So we hoist ourselves off the couch and move through to the bedroom (mercifully quiet), and there we hang out doing our best to ignore the pounding until nap time. Then August is wrapped up and dropped into his bassinet for his afternoon “nap.” The screaming begins after about 4 seconds, rising in pitch and intensity because it’s not his crib and it’s not familiar. And that continues interspersed with bouncing and shushing for about 30 minutes at which point August is placed lovingly in his stroller and pushed up and down the Upper West Side.

Then we return to the apartment and ensconce ourselves in the bedroom coming out only to change nappies amidst the construction dust clouds. Finally, ready for his late afternoon nap, August is once again placed lovingly in his stroller and carted about through Central Park where his eyes finally close. Then at 5 p.m. we’re back at the apartment where a desperately unrefreshed August is encouraged to wind down in his bedtime routine.

The nursery is a safe zone by then, so after a calm feed and a calm bath and another calm feed, he is wrapped up and placed in his crib and oh my-oh my-oh my-noooooo! Where is the bassinet? The crib is unfamiliar, the nursery is unfamiliar. And after bouncing and shushing and rubbing and calming, August finally — finally — drops into a fitful sleep waking up mummy oh, only 40 times-or-so during the night. And well, so the cycle continues.

So, in case anyone was wondering, that’s where we’ve been and no, construction works and babies do not go together.

Tags: Crying, Nursery, Sleeping